Militarisation and resistance

The past decade has seen an intense militarization of police forces around the world.

This month, tens of thousands of people took to the streets to demand change in Colombia. Their peaceful protests have been met with violent repression, and President Iván Duque has called for military presence in urban settlements. As we work to support human rights defenders seeking to uphold the rights of their communities, we take a look at the process of militarisation, and the peaceful protesters and human rights defenders calling for change around the world.

The militarization of police forces is of incredible concern - particularly when police-led human rights abuses are met with impunity. The excessive and policing of protests and borders acts to further marginalise and do violence against the marginalised in our communities, transforming civilians into enemies. Militarised police forces are significantly more likely to do violence against the public, regardless of crime levels, and the presence of military equipment fundamentally changes how civilians interact with those employed to keep the peace. Violent encounters with police have been seen to “produce a strong ripple effect of diminishing the health and well-being of residents who simply live in areas where their neighbors are killed, hurt, or psychologically traumatized.”

Around the world, human rights defenders are taking a stand and calling for fundamental reforms that demilitarize the police, and ask for peaceful conflict resolution, de-escalation, and mediation to be used above non-negotiable force and violence.

In Colombia

The current calls for social justice in Colombia follow the 2019-20 protests that saw hundreds of thousands of Colombians demonstrating against inequalities, police violence, and corruption.

The most notable protest day - the national strike of 21 November 2019 - was for many people a symbol of democracy and hope. An estimated 253,000 citizens took to the street to demand respect for human rights in one day. Their calls met with riots, abuse, and violence from the police and security forces.

This recent article by PBI Colombia discusses the violence faced by protesters in Colombia, and how the current violence fits with the historic use of excessive force that characterises peaceful protest in the country. It also introduces the vital work of our partners in the field, including The Committee in Solidarity with Political Prisoners (CSPP), an organization supported by PBI that represents the family of Dilan Cruz, a young man shot dead by a police officer on November 23.

In Honduras

In late 2019, the Government of Honduras announced that the Armed Forces would be assigned over one billion Honduran Lempiras (nearly 42 million US Dollars) for the management of the Agricultural Development Programme of Honduras, placing the programme outside of the mandate of the country’s agricultural institutions. The response from peasant organisations was swift: “The Government is paying off the military”, declared the National Centre for Field Workers (Central Nacional de Trabajadores del Campo – CNTC) who feared that the same institutions that harassed, attacked, tear-gassed, and displaced them would now wish to reach out to them as allies.
This is just one of the examples cited by PBI Honduras, in their excellent article on the remilitarization of the country. Read more here.

In Kenya

Peace Brigades International expresses severe concern about excessive use of force by state security forces, impunity despite alleged misconduct, the increasing militarization of policing and the attendant risk of human rights violations in Kenya.

PBI-Kenya works closely with grassroots human rights defenders in the informal settlements of Nairobi who are working on cases of extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances by the police.

Young men living in Kenya’s informal settlements are being killed en masse by members of the police, allegedly in the fight against crime and terrorism. Between January and September 2021, 119 people in Kenya were killed by the police. 23 were disappeared.

Prosecutions are extremely rare, resulting in total denial of justice for victims and their families. Available data indicates that since 2007, 618 people have been killed by the police or reported missing, but charges have only been brought in 26 cases.

While there is a legal and institutional framework in place to guide investigations into potentially unlawful killings by the police in Kenya, there are a number of practical gaps that allow for the manipulation of the investigative process in such a way as to facilitate impunity. This means that implementation falls short of the principles of human rights law and the Kenyan Constitution. Additionally, provisions on the use of deadly force by law enforcement officials fall short of the international human rights law standards

The situation has worsened under the pandemic. Confusion surrounding the extent of police power through national lockdown in Kenya has led to arbitrary arrests and extortion. Court sessions have been suspended and local police stations granted increased powers. Our partners in the field have witnessed police taking bribes to release people from jail. They have called for police to adhere to the rule of law and publish guidelines for arrest and handling cases at police stations.

In its most recent report of Kenya, the UN Human Rights Committee raised concerns about the upcoming election and the safety of defenders. Allegations of police officers using excessive use of force, killing civilians, and harassing journalists and HRDs were all documented in the run up to and aftermath of the 2017 election. Extrajudicial killings, especially by plainclothes officers, spiked. Attacks against HRDs looking to uphold the rule of law and protect democracy also increased within the electoral context, indicative of a wider pattern of violence that aims to silence dissenting voices and perpetuate impunity.

As we approach another election year in Kenya, stemming police violence is of the upmost importance. To read more about police violence in Kenya, visit the PBI Kenya site.